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9-5-99The Mob Probers: Who Fingered Jr.

September 5, 1999

By JERRY CAPECI
New York Daily News Staff Writer

They were nowhere near the courtroom in White Plains
Federal Court Friday, when their personal Public Enemy
No. 1 — John A. (Junior) Gotti — received a sentence of
77 months in prison.

But if not for Ercole (Echo) Gaudioso and Pasquale (Nino)
Perrotta, the racketeering case against Junior would never have
gotten off the ground.

After numerous attempts at connecting Gotti to his father's
organized crime empire, investigators were ready to give up.

The turning point came on Columbus Day 1995.

Gaudioso, a state Organized Crime Task Force investigator, and
Perrotta, then a 27-year-old rookie investigator for the Bronx
district attorney, were celebrating the end of the first case they had
worked together with dinner at an Italian restaurant.

Gaudioso, 57, was beeped with hot news from a wiretap:
Gambino mobster Craig DePalma was on his way to a late-night
meeting in Queens. And it sounded important.

They ran to their car and soon were careening down the
Hutchinson River Parkway, through the Bronx, over the
Whitestone Bridge and into Queens. Gaudioso manned the
binoculars. Perrotta was behind the wheel.

Forty minutes later, at Liberty Ave. and the Van Wyck
Expressway, Gaudioso spotted DePalma in his silver Chevy
Blazer; Perrotta eased in behind it. They watched as DePalma
slowed beside a black Oldsmobile and spoke to two men.

Seconds later, both cars pulled away, and there on the passenger
side of the Olds, illuminated by street lights, was Junior, looking
and acting like a mob boss. It was 10:40 p.m.

For about 90 minutes, Gaudioso and Perrotto watched. They saw
Gotti enter a commercial building owned by brother-in-law and
reputed mobster Carmine Agnello, and then leave for a "walk talk"
with two associates.

Not long after midnight, after Gotti and the others had left,
Gaudioso called prosecutor Vincent Heintz and gave him details
linking Gotti to DePalma.

That crucial link would allow them to wiretap Gotti's phones and
bug his offices.

But their adventure wasn't over. As the duo drove away on
Sutphin Blvd., they realized they were being tailed by a blue
Suburban with three men inside.